Express-Scripts plans $56 million expansion and 1,500 new jobs over five years

St. Louis is headed to the top ten in college attainment.

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A pillar of our economic development strategy is that, “We will win on today’s regional strengths in focused economic clusters. Explore in detail the four sectors that we believe will shape our region’s future.

“The Banker” … from Central Park West to Washington Avenue

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We’ve condensed a detailed three-year plan into a single paragraph we call our Strategy Statement. It’s all about priorities and direction.

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Our research team has probably answered almost any question that could be asked regarding the St. Louis region. If you can't find it in our Regional Data section, please send a note to Tim Alexander at talexander@stlregionalchamber.com.

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Inner City Capital Connections Program has come to St. Louis. To date, this program has helped 837 different businesses raise over $1.32 billion in capital and create over 11,000 jobs in the inner city. Read more about the program on our blog.

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We believe nothing is more important in St. Louis than achieving Top 10 status in college attainment among the nation's largest metros. Visit www.topteneducation.org to follow our progress.

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If your company represents growth potential for the region -- or you know of other companies that do -- we'd be pleased to help however we can. Please contact Jim Alexander at jalexander@stlregionalchamber.com

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St. Louis is home to 17 Fortune 1000 companies and some of the largest private firms in the U.S.; but don't overlook the ever increasing number of high growth small-to-medium enterprises and startups. Click here for a quick summary.

Memphis Light, Gas, and Water Division does an annual comparative survey of utility rates in selected cities across the nation.(1) The survey found industrial electric, gas, and water rates in the St. Louis area to be over 25% less than the survey average. St. Louis was also ranked 10th in lowest residential utility bill costs during the winter season. The average residential monthly utility bill for a St. Louis resident was calculated to be $316.82 versus an average of $367.90 in the other cities.

Industry benefits from the area's extremely low industrial electricity rates. The following graph highlights the rates in the St. Louis MSA compared to the national average.
Note: Rates are based on 50,000,000 kWh (70,000 kW) usage.

Each year Fortune magazine publishes their Fortune 1,000 list which ranks publicly traded U.S. companies by their total revenues. In 2017, the St. Louis metro area is home to 17 Fortune 1,000 headquarters, one less than in 2016. Last year Spire made the list at 980, but missed the cutoff this year.

Nine companies remain in the top 500 for the regional area, but there has been some movement among the group as a whole. Olin broke into the Fortune 500 as they continued their growth, while Peabody Energy slipped to 533 as they emerged from bankruptcy.

Express Scripts has been a stable fixture holding their rank of 22nd on the list for the third year in a row. Centene experienced the greatest jump in revenues from 2016, with an overall growth of $17.9 billion, moving up 58 places from 124 to 66 in 2017. Centene is in the process of building a $770 million campus expansion at their Clayton headquarters.

Post Holdings continues to make progress towards cracking the top 500 with an 8.2% increase in revenue over the past year, putting them within eight spots of the Fortune 500.

Due to the constant changes in the business landscape as a result of mergers and acquisitions, the Fortune 1,000 list goes through regular changes year to year. Next year will likely see Panera Bread and Monsanto leaving the list in light of their recent acquisitions. The list also does not account for many major St. Louis metro area companies such as nonprofits like BJC HealthCare or privately owned companies like World Wide Technology or Edward Jones.

In spite of the regular turnover altering the business landscape, St. Louis headquarters continue to fare favorably in the rankings and sustain long-term growth. The Fortune list’s rankings illustrate St. Louis’ longstanding success as a viable location for headquarters of some of the nation’s most prominent and innovative organizations.